Probably not aware of the effect their mistyped URL is having on the internet … the 1975.
Photograph: Mat Hayward/Getty Images

Software and apps are full of so called Easter eggs, which bored coders put in to trigger something novel just for fun. If this is one of those, it’s the most bizarre Easter eggs for a while. Type “the1975..com” into the Google app on your Android phone and see what happens.

For some reason that particular string of characters – not the band by the same name or the real url with just one “.” – brings up a user’s text messages in the Google app. The same thing happens for “zela viagens”, “izela viagens” and “vizel viagens”, as well as a variety of other characters such as “the1975.#com”.

The strange bug was found by a Reddit user, who quickly found they weren’t the only one experiencing the magical appearance of text messages.

The bug showing text messages in the Google app on an Android phone. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs for the Guardian

“For some unexplained reason when I type in ‘the1975..com’ (specifically with two periods) into my search bar on the default pixel launcher it displays my recent text messages through Google,” said Krizastro. “It’s like just about the weirdest glitch I have come by.”

The Google app has long had the ability to show you your text messages, as long as it has been granted permission to access them, using the keywords “show my text messages” and other derivatives. So all the bug is doing is triggering that function on an unlocked phone.

It appears to work for most Android phones with the Google app installed, but is not replicated when trying similar searches in Chrome. Why that’s the case no one seems sure, perhaps Google will enlighten us one day.

It also works in the Google Assistant app on an iPhone, although the app “can’t read text messages yet”.

The Google Assistant app on an iPhone wants to show you your text messages, but can’t quite manage it yet. Photograph: Nick Dastoor for the Guardian

It might be one coder who’s a the 1975 superfan playing a game with all of us. The band is due to release a new album on 1 June. But why it also works for a variety of “viagens” phrases (which is Portuguese for “travels” or “trips”) has people at a loss.

“I can’t even imagine what kind of command this would be catching in the code. Weird,” said SchrodingersCat24.

“It’s so bizarre I feel like he’s self-reporting an Easter egg he included as a Google engineer,” said jasoncongo.